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I’m a bit behind in blogging because my computer has been acting up lately but I think I’ve solved the problem. Since I didn’t post anything lats week, I’m going to separate my weekend recaps into two post. This post will consist of pictures from the first week of July.

Canada Day

My Canada day didn’t go as I had planned. I intended to go to Canada Place with my cousin before she went to work but we left the house too late and couldn’t make it in time. Instead we went to Chinatown:

We went to TheRamen Butcher for lunch. I had the Tsukemen; a cold ramen dish dipped in warm soup. It was great for the hot weather that day, but I found the broth too salty for my preference.

Afterwards, we walked over to Matchstick Coffee and I had an iced London Fog. Matchstick coffee is one of my favourite places to get a London Fog, following Steam tea house.

Afterwards, I went over to my other cousins house to celebrate his birthday and to eat some more. Following that, my friends and I had planned to go to Wreck Beach, but we never made it to the beach because one of my friends got too drunk and passed out.

Friday- July 3rd

On Friday afternoon, my cousin and I decided to bring her dog Miso to the park and have a picnic as well. We bought some snacks and sandwiches from Renzullo Food Market, a cute family-run deli in my neighborhood.

This past weekend in Vancouver has been hot temperature wise. Originally I had plan to go on a road trip with some school friends but I just started a new job and I wasn’t sure if i could get time off, so I didn’t end up going. Instead, I took advantage of the nice weather and spent time with family and high school friends! My weekend was a little too indulgent, but it’s Monday and I’m back to the clean eating grind.

I spent most of my weekend at the beach, more specifically at Spanish Banks. I like Spanish Banks because I find it less busy than the other beaches in Vancouver and there is free parking!

Friday: froyo, beach and family time

Prior to the beach, my cousin and I stopped by Scoop on West 4th to get some frozen yogurt. I got the lavender flavour while my cousin got the matcha flavour.

{Me and my frozen yogurt}

Spanish Banks was really quiet on the Friday afternoon we went. I didn’t mind though, it was quite nice actually.

{My cousin and the view}

After the beach I had a family dinner with my moms side of the family. I didn’t take any pictures of that but there was a lot of food!

I know, I’ve been a bad blogger. Truthfully, I haven’t been on my laptop much since it has been really laggy and with my phone and iPad, I don’t use my laptop as much.

I had a pretty good weekend, although I wasn’t feeling well on Sunday. Here’s a recap of my weekend:

Friday: early father’s day dinner at Cotto Enoteca Pizzeria

Since most my of family members were working on Father’s day (including myself), we celebrated father’s day early. My dad wanted Italian food, so I chose Cotto Enoteca Pizzeria in Burnaby because I’ve always wanted to try their pizza’s!

{We started our meal with calamari and shared the penne chicken pesto and linguine vongole pasta}

{We also shared the polpette and panchetta pizza}

{My family!}

Saturday: hiking at Stawamus Chief

Initially I didn’t have any plans for Saturday but some of my school friends were going hiking at the Chief and asked if I wanted to join. It was my first time hiking the Chief and it was actually really fun! My legs were burning though because I did an intense leg day the day prior.

{I met this sweetest dog named Sonic on the hike. He kept coming back to me because he wanted some of my sandwich but I didn’t mind at all}

{The second peak. It actually started raining when we got to the top of the second peak so we had to wait for the rain to stop before we could go back down}

I got this magnet when I was at Got Craft? and I look at it when I’m in need of some motivation.

Recently I was in a period of my life where I felt lost. Realizing that I’m near the end of my undergrad with no clear direction of what I want to do afterwards, I was scared. What made matters worst is that I realized that I didn’t want to pursue psychology at the graduate level.

I took a risk and decided that I want to pursue marketing and communications. I knew that I could use my psychology background in marketing, despite what people tell me. I sought out experience related to marketing and communications, and ultimately landed an internship doing just that. I know that after I graduate with my psychology degree, I will have to take some courses in marketing/communications and for once in my life.

The moral of this post is that if you have a dream, take risks and work towards that dream. The journey will be hard, but in the end it will be worth it. I get people telling me that I can’t go into marketing with my psychology degree, but I’m proving them wrong. For so long I didn’t do anything because I didn’t think it was possible but it wasn’t until I took a risk that change happened. I am taking baby steps towards my dream career, one risk at a time.

Like this:

One of my favourite weekend activities is to visit the farmers market with my cousin. Two weeks ago, I visited the Kitsilano farmer’s market, which is temporarily being held at the location where Nat Bailey’s farmer market is held. Since I was dog sitting that week, I decided to bring along Yuki. Continue reading to the end to see what I bought!

I know many people don’t enjoy dining alone because it might seem awkward or maybe there’s some stigma attached to it. For myself, it really depends on the place, but I’ve gotten to a point where I’ve become comfortable dining alone. The only downside is that when I’m alone and taking pictures, I often get people staring at me and probably also judging me haha.

Last week I was running some errands and needed some food, so I decided to go to Shishinori for some healthy eats. I love Shishinori because they include brown rice and a delicious salad with their most of their dishes. Great for people who are trying to eat healthier!

I get what I usually order, the Hawaii ahi poke bowl in spicy sauce. I decided to make it a meal by adding an iced green tea and dessert, which was matcha pudding that day. This also comes in shoyo or wasabi, but I’ve never tried those options before. This dish is good, not very spicy though, but for $12 I found the portion to be a bit small. The total for this meal was around $15 ($12 + $3 to make it a meal).

I sat outside and enjoyed the bustling streets of Cambie as people watched me take pictures of my food.

I’ll be starting a new series on the blog called “Weekend Outings” where I will be writing about some events or places I’ve visited on the weekend. The first of the series is on the Summer Night Market, or as some call it the original night market located in Richmond. I visited it last weekend during the Victoria day long weekend and to be honest, I was quite disappointed with the lack of stalls. The food area was bustling with people though, which always seems to be the case at the night market. The only food I bought was an okonmiyaki, while my dad bought some curry fish balls. Check out the photos below:

Lately I’ve been experiencing some health scares. It was a wake-up call for me because as a 21 year old, I still have a long life ahead of me. A combination of unhealthy eating habits, stress, lack of sleep and lack of motivation to exercise created an unhealthy lifestyle. A recent unsettling event also triggered me to binge eat, which made matters worse. Now I’m on a mission to change my lifestyle, which includes eating healthier and exercising regularly. I’ve hired a personal trainer to help motivate me to exercise, in addition to teaching me how to exercise effectively and properly. I’m not going to lie, as a person who loves food, making healthier eating choices is hard! Cooking at home allows me to control what I eat and also saves me money.

But when I do go out to eat, I try to order healthier items. Recently, I’ve been enjoying Burgoo’svegiterranean sandwich accompanied by their kale and quinoa salad. Although I love to eat meat, I love the combination of the vegetables in this sandwich.

Now that I’m on my summer break, it’s nice not having to stress over school. This week I’ve been really sick, so I haven’t done much except for visits to the hospital, going to my internship and working out with my personal trainer.

Here are some pictures from last weekend + Monday:

{Chicken and waffle from Scadilicious on Victoria Drive. I love how they used a cornbread waffle for this dish}

On Sunday, after visiting Eat! Vancouver, my dad wanted to go to Steveston, so we enjoyed the lovely sunny evening there…

Over the weekend, I had an opportunity to check out Got Craft? Spring Edition with my cousin and her friend. On the Saturday afternoon we visited, it was bustling with people and overall, I had a good experience. Here are some highlights from the market and read until the end of the post to find out what I bought!